Wrapping up The Channel Company's 2017 Best of Breed conference Tuesday evening, Dupler noted that the IT "confusion and complexity" the channel is navigating underscores just how vital IT has become to the success of all businesses.

Deierlein, who served during Operation Iraqi Freedom and received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, emphasized the importance of communication, decisiveness and resilience in a keynote at the 2017 Best of Breed conference.

"This is not just an Office 365 story," said Tech Data COO Rich Hume. "All of the software providers in our value portfolio are also going through this journey and adding Software-as-a-Service capabilities."

To help partners make headway with customers, VMware's Frank Rauch said the company is offering significant discounts, investing in specialists to help partners sell vSAN and NSX, as well as architects to help partners build out practices around those solutions.

Tech Data Chairman and CEO Bob Dutkowsky has brought together — for the first time ever — the best of value-added and volume distribution, providing end-to-end solutions from consumer devices to complex infrastructure.

"Everything we build at Trace3 is focused not just on selling to IT and helping IT architect itself, but how can IT rearchitect the business? Everything we do in technology is focused on helping these companies transform," Beecher said to fellow solution providers at the 2017 Best of Breed conference.

Lee'or and Wendy Rutenberg and their daughter Sadie – the first child in the US HALO IDE trial to receive the smallest mechanical heart valve in the world - took center stage at the fourth annual Denali Dash 5K Run and 1K walk for kids.